It was a good way to end the week: I spent Friday talking to very clever people in London and then Cambridge, about things digital in general and specifically how the tech is affecting democracy. I might write more about both meetings in due course, but meanwhile, these are the books mentioned in the discussions.

[amazon_link id=”067443000X” target=”_blank” ]Capital in the 21st century[/amazon_link] by Thomas Piketty, of course – even Cabbage is interested

[amazon_link id=”0393239357″ target=”_blank” ]The Second Machine Age[/amazon_link] by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

[amazon_link id=”0393310957″ target=”_blank” ]Revolt of the Masses[/amazon_link] by Jose Ortega Y Gasset

[amazon_image id=”0393310957″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Revolt of the Masses[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”1440047510″ target=”_blank” ]Liberty and the News[/amazon_link] by Wlater Lippmann (which coincidentally I read fairly recently)

[amazon_link id=”B0058TW95W” target=”_blank” ]Thought and Change[/amazon_link] by Ernest Gellner

[amazon_link id=”0141393041″ target=”_blank” ]1984[/amazon_link] by George Orwell and (in the same sentence) [amazon_link id=”0099518473″ target=”_blank” ]Brave New World[/amazon_link] by Aldous Huxley

[amazon_image id=”014118776X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four (Penguin Modern Classics)[/amazon_image]   [amazon_image id=”0099458160″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Brave New World[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0691148686″ target=”_blank” ]The Confidence Trap[/amazon_link] by David Runciman

[amazon_link id=”1623650623″ target=”_blank” ]From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg[/amazon_link] by John Naughton

Plato [amazon_link id=”0140455116″ target=”_blank” ]The Republic[/amazon_link]

There were several others too, given that it was an academic forum, but those were the ones I happened to note. Interesting, though, that this largely non-tech group was referring back to the politics/democracy literature (and mainly classics) far more than to recent books specifically on digital politics, such as Rebecca Mackinnon’s [amazon_link id=”0465063756″ target=”_blank” ]Consent of the Networked[/amazon_link].

[amazon_image id=”0465063756″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Consent of the Networked[/amazon_image]